Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with production

Is a California LLC the right way to go for a film production company?

drjimmy11 — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:47:21 -0800

I'm going to be producing a low-budget feature film, and hopefully more in the future. I'm considering setting up a company via LegalZoom or similar and just want to know if there are any "gotcha"s before I start. It will obviously be a small company, with the only principal being me, and no employees except freelancers hired to work on the films(s). My main goal is just to protect myself from personal liability in the event of a lawsuit, though I also think maybe it might help us in being able to hire interns for course credit. And I'm sure there are other reasons which I'm not thinking of.

I was considering going through a lawyer, but the referral I got flaked, so I figured this might be something I could do myself. I just want to make sure:

a) LLC is the logical choice for this sort of company

and

b) there are not any issues I'm missing. I am aware of, and prepared to pay, the $800 minimum tax per year charged by the state.

and

c) Legalzoom is a good resource to do this myself.

Thanks!

Simple Database for Video Production

sdsparks — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:34:03 -0800

I'm looking for a simple, cloud based database to keep track of production contacts (Cast and Crew) and location information for a medium sized production company. The database should be able to be used simultaneously from computers worldwide and feature tagging and photo uploading. Also, we should be able to change the basic fields when needed. Do you know of a good service/tool for this use? I have been looking for the perfect solution for a while, but every tool is too complicated, desktop based or aimed at salesmen. I feel like this must be a standard set of needs, but I've had almost no luck. Filemaker seemed promsing, but to outfit the whole team would be prohibitively expensive, in the 5 figure range.

Food Manufacturing Advice--lowcarb variety

chaoscutie — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 12:14:49 -0800

So--IRL I am a busy psychologist with a busy practice and not a lot of time. In internet circles--of the lowcarb eating community variety, I have a lovely rep as the creator of a really nice low carb flour substitute for baking. Although I have made my recipe available online (requires some specialty ingredients), folks are enthusiastic enough about this concoction that they are encouraging me to go into production and to sell it. I haven't a clue what that would involve, and would likely be more interested in remaining the creative end who partners with someone who can execute the production stuff. What are the things I should be thinking about here? My questions are: 1--how do I find an entity that would be interested in this.
2--how do I maintain some proprietary rights--recipes, I know, are not copyrightable, yes?
3--what am I not considering? Is this foolish to think of doing?

Any and all advice sincerely welcomed.

Interesting scifi / glam rock makeup looks?

lemoncakeisalie — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:55:32 -0800

Can you point me to some (non-prosthetic) scifi/fantasy makeup looks? I've landed a volunteer position as a makeup designer for a production of a beautifully campy show. For a few of the characters, who are aliens, the director wants a glam rock look, something like Alice Cooper meets Ziggy Stardust.

I'd like to mix it up a bit further by looking at designs from science fiction / fantasy TV and film, glam rock, fashion / modeling / photo shoots, and theatre of all sorts.

I'd especially like to see campy designs for aliens, like from Star Trek: The Original Series or from old scifi films. I don't have access to prosthetics, and I don't want to, say, paint someone completely green or something.

I've already looked through all of www.themakeupgallery.info and gathered some inspiration from the scifi series Farscape. Can people offer further resources, photos, links, or suggestions?

Thank you!

What should we name our film production company?

nathancaswell — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:56:29 -0800

What should we rename our film production company to? We mostly do stylized short documentaries at the moment but it shouldn't be something that pigeonholes us.

Help me understand Henri Lefebvre's book, The Production of Space

FuckingAwesome — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 03:07:10 -0800

Help me understand Henri Lefebvre's book, The Production of Space I have just started reading this book and am finding it incredibly dense and inaccessible. Can anyone point me to a summary of his ideas (ideally something akin to Sparknotes) that I can read alongside the text itself? Thanks.

Need Big Parking Lot Near Downtown Toronto

Ziggurat — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:25:32 -0800

Where can we find a large (almost) empty parking lot in or near Downtown Toronto tomorrow? We're shooting a little indie film tomorrow, and need a spacious, mostly empty parking lot. We'll be driving around it (nothing stunt-y or crazy) and shooting scenes inside the vehicle.
The closer it is to downtown Toronto the better.

Challenges/Bonus Points:
- ideally it should be on the quieter side, so not right under a parkway or something. (it doesn't have to be super quiet or anything, though)
- ideally it would be in not-too-far from proximity to somewhere with bathrooms... a Starbucks, a public park restroom, something like that.

Plan A is down at one of the CNE lots, but it looks like it might be crazy busy down there tomorrow, so we're looking for a last-minute Plan B.
thanks a lot!

Box my life, please.

mykescipark — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:29:48 -0800

I'm looking to produce a very limited-edition chipboard CD box set of about 100 numbered copies. I don't need Megalodon's minimum of 500. Does anyone else produce these boxes? How about obtaining blanks?

Gear geekin

aesacus — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:32:05 -0800

Starting package of gear for live electronic music? I'm a keyboard player and know some classical music theory and want to try my hand at electronic music.

I want to approach this a bit differently than most others. I want to make the music with the desire to play it live from the start, meaning I want to be able to generate all the sounds on the fly without anything prerecorded. So far I have been thinking this means lots of looping and layering (ala Andrew Bird or Zoe Keating) and probably spending $500-1000 initially on hardware.

So far, what has enamored me (and is in my price range) is the Microkorg, the Kaoss pad, the Kaossilator, and the Maschine. I would be able to buy two of these things (with cables and such), three at the most. My minimum requirements are a keyboard, since that is my skill, with synth/effects, a loop station, and sampler pads or some kind of percussive input. The Kaoss Pad seems to have pretty good looping capabilities, and I'm thinking that the Microkorg + KP3 could be a really good minimal starting route. Paying 200+ for a separate small looping pedal seems kind of ridiculous. I'm really attracted to the Maschine for playing out beats and samples, so maybe that'd be good with the KP3/Microkorg. I'm not sure how dependent on software the maschine is though. Also, Daedelus' Monome is pretty awesome (or the Novation Launchpad, for my budget), but probably not necessary for me now.

I would like to avoid using a laptop, although I do have both Ableton and Reason. I'm thinking this would take away from my whole live playing goal, and it just seems less genuine. This could just be my own irrational hangup though. I'm a programmer by trade and can pick up the software pretty quick. If I were to go the software route, I could probably just get a Maschine and use the midi keyboard I already have and save quite a lot of money. That way I could loop on the computer, get synth and effects on the computer (eg. audiomulch), and not need the hardware. Maybe I could get a touchscreen monitor or something to make it better to use live. This route does not interest me as much as the KP3/Microkorg route though.

I really appreciate any suggestions.

It's closest I'll ever get to time-traveling

stroke_count — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:49:56 -0800

Is there a resource online for searching films/shows by time period depicted? Often films or shows will put me in the mood for a time period. I experience this when watching another film/show that succeeds in creating an intoxicating, convincing reconstruction of the past, this place that is so remote from us and yet so intimately connected to us at the same time. It's closest I'll ever get to time-traveling.

For instance, I have been hooked on the show "Boardwalk Empire" recently, and I've become fascinated with the cultural landscape during Prohibition Era in the US. The post-war disillusionment, the rise of women's rights, the early automobile technology, the racism, the gangs, the immigration, the wealth, even just the clothing fashion. I really admire the (well-funded) show's ability to evoke the past with such rich and meticulous attention to period detail. The visual effects were actually showcased on MeFi.

So, then I started thinking about the atmosphere created by Downton Abbey, which is also set around World War I, and how the cultural movements described above played out in the UK.

Help me time travel.

FL Studio: How to perform live?

dunkadunc — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:33:30 -0800

DAW/ConcertFilter: Help me take music I've written in FL Studio and perform it live. I'd really like to avoid walking onstage and pressing "Play". I'd like to be able to take the songs I've written in FL Studio and perform them live as a set. Has anybody else done this, and if so what was the workflow?

My music is largely electronic rock, and I've found the FL live mode to be a major drag to work with using my existing keyboard controller, what with all the drum loop switchups, et cetera: For example, this track looks like this in the DAW.
Honestly, it's one of my simpler tracks, and it's a real headache to trigger each damn loop and stop it looping at the right time using FL's Live Mode. This approach might work for progressive trance, but what I'm doing here it gets in the way.

The other problem with FL Studio (besides getting the loop sequencing to play nice while performing a set) is that it doesn't work well switching between project files when time is of the essence. In the performing world, how do people deal with this problem?

I'm getting the feeling that sticking with FL is not the best way, but my sound is so effects- and synth- based that just lifting my notation from FL and dropping it into another DAW wouldn't really give satisfactory results. What's the best way to do this?

Finally, what should I have for basic audio output hardware, if any? Any other suggestions about stuff I might not be aware of?

How do I move the moving pictures from the camera to the computer?

justjess — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:37:19 -0800

I am in the application process for a really awesome job, and I just found out I have my second phone interview on Monday afternoon. Yay! It's a producing job at a start up web content company, and based on the first call, they're going to want to hire someone who can move data from cameras (sounds like I would be mostly working with DSLRs) into Final Cut Pro and prepare it for editing. I currently work in TV, where this job belongs to the assistant editors, and I don't even know how to begin to figure out this process. Please give me some weekend reading material to help me figure out if this is something I could quickly learn how to do. Thank you! Sorry if this question sounds dumb, I have spent my entire career telling the camera operators what to shoot and then arriving at my office the next day to magically find that footage loaded onto my desktop editing system.

I really appreciate any advice/resources you may have!

A Knotty Issue

mippy — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 09:39:01 -0800

In all the talk about fast fashion and sweatshop labour, it's often been said that sequins can only be attached by hand, therefore someone needs to physically sew them onto a garment. But what about crochet? I did a quick google and saw that there is such a thing as a crochet machine, which would explain why crocheted trims are often on high-street garments (and 'crochet' seems to be used by stores a lot these days to mean 'kind of lacy knittingy thing') but I was thinking more novelty items such as this - would someone have had to hand-make something like that, and if so how is it possible to mass-produce for a low price given the time it might take to do so? I have heard of crocheted goods made and sold as a fair-trade product (probably why I couldn't buy a pattern for the Avercamp dolls by the same designer) but I was wondering how this worked in terms of the price range of chain stores. Can it only be done by hand? Is a store able to make a profit on something sold at a low price without the crafters being poorly paid?

Do gameshow writers do their homework?

Gordafarin — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 07:45:31 -0800

How much planning (or lack thereof) goes into the selection of knowledge-based game show categories & questions? I was watching a TV game show where, during the introductions, the host asks the contestant what types of questions they're hoping will be asked or what their weak areas are. Now presumably the questions are already chosen at that point, but it made me wonder: Do staff take into account a contestant's profession and background when choosing questions? All the suspense is lost if a player's million-dollar question is about their day job and it's not really fair to the other contestants to watch a Jeopardy player sweep a category about their home state. Is this part of the planning of the show?

Old Gene Roddenberry Had a Farm!

goalyeehah — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:12:21 -0800

Where can I find someone doing R and D for growing food off planet? I am producing a TEDx event in August entitled "Food and Food Systems in the 21st Century" I've got global and local issues covered I am now looking for physicists, etc. who are researching and developing ways of growing food off planet i.e. space colonies, space travel, etc.

Shooting blanks here at Caltech and JPL. Is there a way for lay person to approach NASA and find out? Help!

How do I take this from my browser into real life?

bumpjump — Sat, 26 May 2012 08:27:53 -0800

I'm having a ridiculously fun time playing with Audiotool and am learning a ton about desktop production. Where do I go from here? It's been about a month since I started using Audiotool (a flash-based DAW) and I think I'm ready to dive into music production outside of my web browser. What gear do I need to start making hip hop beats and house/electro music? Caveat: I'm a PC user so I'm pretty sure Logic is out of the question.

90s Pro video equipment - Betacam SP - recycle, donate, what ?

devious truculent and unreliable — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:22:37 -0800

I have a Betacam-SP UWV 1800-p player/recorder. I cannot think of any use for it. Would it suit a college AV department ? Or a museum ? I'd like to see it find a good home, but I will settle for getting rid of it. Can any Mefiers recommend a next step ?

What're the best texts on Game Production?

GilloD — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:40:53 -0800

There are a zillion great books on game design, writing for games, designing sound for games etc. But what about game production? What're the important texts/articles/blog posts for leading a team and standard production practices? I suppose any kind of software development/production piece might be helpful, but if there are bits out there specifically about game production, those'd be extra helpful!

Why are movie ticket prices so consistent?

Leenie — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:34:39 -0800

Why are the prices for the discount art flick, the small production movie, the big studio romantic comedy and the big action film that cost $200 million to create all priced roughly the same? Where I live there is a one dollar spread among three theater chains (We have one major chain, one minor chain and one "artsy" theater chain with a total of 40 screens in my town).

I know the theaters make little if any money on the ticket sales. It just seems odd that the movie that cost $5 mil and the one that cost $200 mil share the same ticket price. It costs more to make a Ferrari or Bentley than it does a Toyota or Chevrolet, and they are priced accordingly. It costs more to grow organic food that 'regular' and it is priced accordingly. A hand made watch costs more than a Casio at the drug store...yet movie ticket prices are the same regardless of costs.

Any ideas?

If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.

Grlnxtdr — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:26:00 -0800

Have any of you actually purchased "Price upon request" clothing or jewelry? What did that entail? I see things constantly in magazines that are marked with Price upon request. Google says that these things are usually not for sale, not put into production, etc. Usually does not mean never, right?

Have any Mefites done this? The price, was it outrageous, even more than the usual (crazy) prices for these types of things? What was it?

Have you worked in the fashion or jewelry industry enough to answer this question, or do you regularly get to take "price upon request" swag home?

I'm not super fashionable, but I am super curious.

Making a rap beat in Reaper

LSK — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:33:36 -0800

Walk me through making a simple rap instrumental in Reaper using free VSTis. I'm using Reaper (the music software), and would like to make a rap instrumental.

Here is what I know:

- how to use the piano-roll style MIDI entry
- how to set BPM
- a few settings

Here is what I have:

- just the VSTis which came with Reaper

Here is what I want to do:

- find the right (free) VSTi instruments
- understand how to configure them to get a rap-style sound
- understand anything else I need to know to make this sound decent

All the tutorials I can find assume I already have some expertise tweaking synthesizer settings, which I have absolutely none of. Explain like I'm five, because I may as well be.

Help counting products to ship?

pxharder — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:02:15 -0800

Where can I find something to help me count products I'm shipping? We make a variety of products, all shaped about the size of a brick. We want to have them inspected, then sent through a funnel and counted, then dropped into a box for shipment. We can't find anything on the market to do this. Does anyone know where to find such a thing?

So, you want fries with that?

jamesalbert — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:13:11 -0800

[College/Career Filter] How do I guide my HS daughter in her ambitions towards Theater production? Hi all, after a few years of school plays working primarily behind the scenes, my daughter is leaning heavily towards pursuing a career in theater production. Listening to her talk about it, you can tell she’s really jazzed about the madness and mayhem of live production. She doesn't necessarily want to be on the stage or in front of the camera. It’s managing/coordinating the behind-the-scenes stuff that really gets her going.

I imagine career-wise this would also be in the same neighborhood as TV, radio, movie, documentary production which is also of great interest. Her second love is photography which also could benefit her ambitions.

The thing is, I have no clue what direction to guide her in. I'm in manufacturing/engineering, mom's a nurse. Her guidance counselor is also of limited use. She just turned 17 and is a HS Junior, so time’s a’ticking.

So the question is this: What would you call this kind of career path? What kind of a college education are we looking at here? What colleges are know for this type of career? What kind of education do the people that work in this field generally have? (daddy question: Is there any money in this?)

We are near NYC and routinely make trips there since the kids were babies (hence her interests in the arts - woohoo!). She is very comfortable with Manhattan.

Any guidance and/or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Help me make better electronic music.

lobbyist — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:01:02 -0800

Help me move forward in producing electronic music. While I realize that there have been numerous questions already asked on MeFi about how to get started in producing electronic music, I feel that my scenario may be a bit different:

Basically, I’ve been producing my own electronic music for the past ~3 years. I am extremely fluent with FL Studio (the first DAW that I learned, and still use) and am fairly comfortable with Ableton. All of the synths/plugins that I use come from respectable third party developers/software companies, and currently, I am able to achieve a somewhat decent, though notably amateurish, sound.

My problem is that I feel like I’ve hit a ceiling with how far I can take my music. I’ve learned mostly through experimentation (playing a note and then tweaking some knobs) and have a solid grasp on the very basics of composing/synthesis/sampling. However, I feel like in order to make my music sound more “professional,” I need to learn more about the intricacies of mixing/electronic music production in general. The best analogy that I can come up with is this: currently, I know what a compressor does, I know why one would use a compressor, but I don’t know what threshold/ratio will help me achieve a warmer/fuller sound on a sub-bass or kick drum.

This sort of “not understanding the finer details” applies to nearly all aspects of my music, from mixing/equalizing to creating my own custom presets.

In the end, I just want my music to sound better; I want to have much more control over the sounds that I make. Because I am a college student, I don’t have the time or the money to enroll in a music production course; however, I would love suggestions for books/websites/tutorials that could help me out.

Thanks so much Mefi!

Podcast/audio production and workflow: How-to guides and/or ideas? (Snowflakes inside.)

NikitaNikita — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:31:39 -0800

Podcast/audio production and workflow: How-to guides and/or ideas? (Snowflakes inside.) Once again, many years later, I return with podcast questions. Now with more special snowflake qualifiers!

I'm interested in your tips or references about how to produce a podcast. The challenge here isn't equipment, but managing workflow.

Special details: The end product will be a podcast and/or one-off interview, primarily containing narration by the reporter and soundbites from the interviewee. All content must be accompanied by a transcript, and the interviews will contain some technical/scientific language. Additionally, (here's the fun part) the material needs to pass through several levels of review, suggestions, and approval.

If I make the audio piece to my standards/liking, splicing my narration with the interviewee's, then send it through review, my very-likely-to-be-realized fear is that there will be minute editing suggestions made by five different people in succession, each wanting it "cleared" by the person before. And I know continuously going back to edit that audio or video based on everyone's requests will be a complete pain in the ass. (It's a pain in the ass for print, as it is.)

One solution I thought of is this:
1. Transcribe all the recorded audio.
2. Use this text and write in my own script and paste in the interviewees words as I imagine I want the audio/final piece to sound.
3. Send this transcript/script around for approval/for everyone to analyze/make comments on/whathaveyou.
4. Use the comments to make edits to the script and once everyone is happy with this and "clears" the script, then this becomes the transcript.
5. Then go produce the actual audio segment.

This solution addresses my issues, however, what I don't like about it is that it requires a transcription of "raw" interview first, which is likely to be longer, much of it won't be used, and then it will cost more. This seems like a waste. Negotiating to hire a transcription service will be a major challenge as is, as I imagine it is costly.

Sorry for all the snowflakiness. Links to general how-to guides about podcast management and workflow also welcome, even if they don't address the minute details. Thanks!

(I might end up doing this with video, too (WOO!), so vodcast links are welcome too.)